Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media report them inadequately. We blog here because our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, New York, Madrid, London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening and why. This ongoing war is killing us.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

28-May-13: Post-slaughter, did the Brits think this was all behind them?

Londoners can go about their business in the normal way and we are going to bring the killers to justice.

We know from not-so-pleasant experience about the political imperatives that sometimes cause public figures, and in particular politicians, to zoom right past the fresh bodies on the ground and the cheering friends of terror celebrating another victory for their brand of triumphal theology, and telling the public that it's all fine now, move along, nothing to see here and goodness, again, has prevailed.

So allow us to mention just a small handful of post-Woolwich reverberations that, by their nature, are going to get less attention than the sight of a large man gripping a butcher knife dripping with human blood and gore and speaking on some urban neighbourhood's shopping street, earnestly into the lens of amateur video cameras about why this is all perfectly understandable if you just stop for a minute and understand, really understand, why he had to do it.

Over in another famously tolerant European setting, Sweden, there have been ongoing riots and arson attacks on a huge scale for the past week, triggered after police "shot dead an elderly man brandishing a machete inside his house" [source: Telegraph UK]. Yes, they are being reported, sort of (see for instance "Stockholm riots leave Sweden's dreams of perfect society up in smoke"). And no, most people in most places seem to have very little of sense that (a) it's happening and (b) that it's about something more than unhappy, unemployed young people and warm weather.

From a Swedish news source, last night:

Britain's Foreign Office, the Dutch foreign ministry and the US embassy in Stockholm to issue warnings to their nationals, urging them to avoid the affected suburbs. Among the Swedes themselves, the riots have triggered debate over the integration of immigrants, many of whom arrived under the country's generous asylum policies and who now make up about 15 percent of the population. [The Local]

echoes of urban eruptions in France in 2005 and Britain in 2011 [that] have pushed Sweden to the center of a heated debate across Europe about immigration and the tensions it causes in a time of deep economic malaise.

And as the French and the British did in 2005 and 2011, the gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands go on while many observers, and overwhelmingly most of the news media, studiously avoid saying what people viewing the rock throwing, firebomb-hurling rioters and their slogans and shouted exhortations to violence understand fairly well.

Officially, the French government is making no direct link with the killing of a British soldier by two Islamist radicals on a street in Woolwich last Wednesday. Unofficially, investigators are said to believe it was almost certainly a copy-cat attack, possibly carried out on the spur of the moment. The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, who visited the injured man in hospital, said that it was clear that "someone wanted to kill him because he was a soldier". The interior minister, Manuel Valls, said France would continue to wage an "implacable fight against terrorism".

By DANIEL MILLER [UK Daily Mail] May 28, 2013 |
Three jailed Islamic extremists stabbed a warder and beat him for four hours, after the prison imam called on them to pray for murdered soldier Lee Rigby, it was reported last night. The group, which was believed to have been led by a terrorist prisoner serving a life sentence, snatched the officer from near the kitchens on E-wing at Full Sutton prison, near York. The terrified hostage, who is in his 30s, was locked in a cleaning room where he was beaten with mop handles and told he was going to die. The prison's National Tactical Response Group were called and eventually managed to free him and he was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The three prisoners were thought to have become enraged following a prison imam’s call for Muslim inmates to pray for soldier Lee Rigby, who was stabbed to death by extremists last week... The gang's leader is said to be an al Qaeda-linked terrorist currently serving a life sentence for plotting to murder a British Muslim soldier, believed to have been an inspiration for last week's attack. His accomplices were an African-born fanatic and and British man who converted to Islam while in prison. The warder hostage was said to have been battered senseless by the gang who threatened to pour caustic toilet cleaner in his eyes.Prison authorities were reportedly concerned that they had managed to get hold of knives from the kitchens which they would use to behead their captive. Sutton Prison houses dozens of extremist prisoners and there has been recent concern about the spread of radical Islam behind its walls. In 2009 an escape plot was uncovered which involved hi-jacking a helicopter and landing it in the prison grounds to free nine Muslim inmates. [More at Daily Mail]

Today, parts of the mainstream media report that the lone wolves - who's really surprised? - are part of a much larger pack of savages with an ideological agenda. It's hinted at in a BBC report this morning ("Lee Rigby murder: Police make 10th arrest"). The lone wolves appear to have had accomplices, and the investigation is barely a week old.

A powerful web of Islamic radicals and terror convicts sits behind the two men believed to have executed Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich, it emerged today. Michael Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are both apparently linked to a wider network of men who are known to have either planned atrocities, preached violence or joined groups considered so extreme they are now banned. These apparent connections have come to light since the British Muslims were arrested on suspicion of hacking Drummer Rigby to death in broad daylight after he was run down with a car last Wednesday.

As for us, sitting far away from the British action, we say (again) only that terrorism is not in retreat but on the ascendancy, despite endless analytic reports to the contrary. And that the dangers and the pain they deliver up to ordinary people like us will end only when... ah, but then you can see what we want to say in the banner right at the top of this and every other page of our blog.

No comments:

Search this blog

What we were saying a decade ago...

Image Source There's steady bloodshed going on down south of us. The revolutionary heros of the Palestinian Arab nation-to-be are bu...

About us

THIS ONGOING WAR is not part of the activity of the Malki Foundation which was founded by us, Frimet and Arnold Roth of Jerusalem, on September 9, 2001. But it is inspired by the same tragic circumstances. The Malki Foundation (also known by its Hebrew name: Keren Malki) is a memorial to the life of our daughter, Malki. She's in the photo below this paragraph. Malki was murdered at the age of 15 in a massacre in the centre of Jerusalem carried out by Hamas.

Beyond its function as a remembrance of a beautiful life, the foundation provides tangible, concrete, invaluable support daily to several thousand Israeli families from every part of the religious and socio-economic spectrum: Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze and others who care at home for a seriously disabled child.

Reach us at thisongoingwar@gmail.com

Our daughter Malka Chana Roth

Born in Melbourne 1985. Murdered in a Hamas terrorist outrage in Jerusalem 2001

The Clinton Emails and the Iran Lobby
-
The release of another batch of Hillary Clinton emails, courtesy of the
State Department, provides an opportunity to glimpse inside the formation
of the Ob...

1 year ago

Good for the soul | The Malki Foundation

If you care to make a positive and constructive contribution to the care of Israeli children with special needs - whether they're Christian, Moslem, Jewish, Druze or unconnected to any particular faith community - you can't do better than direct your donation to the work of the Malki Foundation.

It's the charitable organization we, the bloggers who produce This Ongoing War, established in 2001 in memory of our murdered daughter. Her name is Malki.

Keren Malki (in Hebrew, Keren means 'foundation' or 'fund') is efficient, effective, non-sectarian, non-political and unique in the good work it does. Thousands of families from every part of our richly diverse society here in Israel have benefited in concrete and meaningful ways. Donations to Keren Malki are tax-effective in Israel, Canada, UK and the United States.

Fair use notice

This blog may contain copyrighted material that may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such material, published without profit, is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues. It is published in accordance with the provisions of Israel's 2007 Copyright Law, the US Copyright Act of 1976, the 2004 Supreme Court of Canada ruling and similar laws in other jurisdictions.

This Ongoing War: About this blog

Many people lack a factual understanding of events in our region because the media often report them inadequately. Our daughter Malki, murdered at the age of 15 in a restaurant massacre in Jerusalem, was a victim of jihadist hatred and barbarism. For jihadism and terrorism to end in Israel, in New York, in Madrid, in London and everywhere else, people first need to understand the scale on which it is happening. This ongoing war is killing us.